He stopped just long enough to meet my eyes.Something raw lived there.Not doubt.
Fear.
“I’ll call you,” he said.
He wouldn’t.
I knew it before the door closed.Knew it the way you know when a storm has shifted direction.
The door clicked shut.
I stood there, my hands clenched at my sides, staring at the space he had just occupied.Behind me, the girls returned to their toys, laughter resuming, unaware that something irreversible had just happened.
Aunt Ruth met my gaze across the room, her expression soft with understanding.
This was the moment.
It wasn’t because of what had been said.But because Creed Kirkland had been shown a future he hadn’t given himself permission to want.
And it had scared him enough to run.
Merry Christmas.
* * *
THE HOUSE DIDN’T FEELdifferent after he left.
That was the cruelest part.
The lights still blinked.The tree still glowed.Wrapping paper littered the floor like confetti after a celebration that had already passed.Morgan and Michelle laughed in the living room, arguing over whose turn it was to use the karaoke machine, their voices bright and unbroken.
Life went on.
I moved through the kitchen on autopilot, rinsing syrup from plates, stacking mugs in the sink.My hands didn’t shake.I didn’t cry.I focused on the small, ordinary tasks because they were solid and required nothing from me.
Behind me, the girls played.
In front of me, the water was cool beneath my palms.
I breathed.Slow.Measured.Mine.
This wasn’t the first time I’d watched a man leave my doorway.But this one hurt differently—not sharper—just deeper.Because for a moment, I had let myself believe he was staying.
Not just for me.
For us.
I disappeared into the bathroom and pressed my fingers into the counter until the ache grounded me.He hadn’t rejected me.That was the truth I needed to hold onto.
He had flinched from the shape of a future he hadn’t been ready to claim.
That didn’t make him cruel.But it didn’t make me wrong for wanting more.
A soft knock sounded behind me.
Aunt Ruth.
She didn’t say anything at first.Just wrapped her arms around me, steady and warm, her cheek resting against my temple.I let myself lean into her for one quiet second.
